Rain
by TortoiseNHare64
Summary: When a major storm hits Glendale, Dan's power gets knocked out. Realizing that he has no food in his apartment, and being afraid of the storm, Dan starts to freak out. Luckily, Suzy and Arin are brave enough to trek out and rescue him.


Reporters said that this was the greatest level of rainfall Glendale had experienced in over a decade. It had been non-stop pummeling the city since late last night and several streets were already flooded. It was only supposed to get worse. Dan hadn't slept at all between the booming sound of thunder and the constant flickering of the power on and off. He had texted Arin telling him that he wasn't sure he would be able to film today. He didn't want to disappoint the lovelies but there was no way that he would be able to drive through this disastrous weather to the office. The power had gone out for good early that morning and Dan didn't have a means of charging his phone. There weren't any stores within walking distance that he could go and charge it. Besides, all of the stores were probably closed since the mayor had declared a state of emergency.

Closing the curtains by the windows, Dan moved to sit on the couch and hugged his long legs up to his chest. He pulled his favorite quilt from off the back of the couch and wrapped himself up in it. There wasn't much else he could do. His laptop had died and the few game handhelds he possessed also needed to charge. The other Grumps and Ninja Brian lived too far away for him to try and crash at their place now. He knew Arin and Suzy had backup generators installed in the Grump Office. He should have gone to stay there ahead of the storm.

He stared at the blank phone on the table in front of him for a few minutes, mind racing, before he gave into the urge and turned it on. He told himself he would just check for notifications from his parents or the Grumps before turning it back off again. Instantly he saw a text from his dad checking in on him and five texts from Arin. He responded to his dad first, letting him know that he was safe and in his apartment. Arin's texts were jumbled and seemed to have been sent out of order.

 **[Do you have power?]**

 **[Coming to get you. Be there soon.]**

 **[The office and the nearby streets aren't in bad shape. Roads aren't flooded here.]**

 **[You're out of food, right?]**

Dan blinked, not knowing which text to respond to first. It was difficult to determine when the last message was sent. A sudden surge of fear filled him. What if Arin really _was_ on his way? There was no way he should be driving in this weather!

He was halfway through sending a lengthy reply instructing Arin to stay safe and absolutely _not_ journey out into this hell when his doorbell rang. Jumping up, he ran to his front door and threw it open. On the other side of it stood a very soaked Arin.

"Dude! You should have kept your phone on!"

Dan didn't know what to say. Arin had braved the storm to come and get him. He was so overwhelmed with emotion that he reached out and pulled Arin tightly against him. Arin's soaked clothes chilled Dan to his core but he didn't care. His arms wrapped around Arin's shoulders and he buried his face into his friend's neck.

Arin rubbed soothing hands against Dan's back. "Hey man, it's okay. Suzy's in the car waiting. Let's get you to the office before shit gets worse. We have provisions. Grab your shit."

"I can't believe you drove out in this!" Dan exclaimed as he rushed around his apartment grabbing his chargers and spare overnight bag he always kept packed for last minute trips. "And with Suzy in the car! You could have killed yourselves."

"Suzy insisted. We weren't going to leave you here alone. We know how you are during storms. We would have asked you to stay with us yesterday but this storm came out of nowhere."

"I know. It sucks. I'm sorry." Dan felt terribly guilty. "I didn't have my phone on or I would have told you not to come. If you got hurt -"

"Dude, would you stop talking and hurry up?"

Dan finished getting his things and put his hand on Arin's shoulder. "Thank you for this. I really appreciate it. Even if we wind up dying."

"No problem. And now you can't get out of working today!"

The drive back to the office wasn't as perilous as Dan would have thought it to be. Arin only hydroplaned twice near Dan's apartment and he was able to right his path before they crashed into anything. Suzy kept her hand on Dan's shoulder from the backseat during the entire ride.

When they got to the office, it was a mad dash inside. They all got soaked anyway. Even though he knew the office had backup power, Dan was still surprised to see all of the lights on inside the office space.

"Now that we got our man safe and sound, I'm going to go finish recording," Suzy announced before giving Arin a quick kiss on the cheek and Dan a tight hug. "You boys have fun!" She slipped her wet shoes and socks off at the door and moved off to retrieve a fresh pair of dry clothes.

"Do you wanna change before we record?"

Dan looked down at his clothes. It was probably best to put on a dry pair that he hadn't been wearing since the night before. It sucked that he wouldn't be able to shower. He could feel his hair getting greasy.

"Yeah, that sounds good."

Arin nodded and plopped his keys down in the bowl next to the door before moving further into the office space. "Meet in the Grump Room in ten?"

Dan nodded in reply. He carried his bag to the bathroom and closed the door, leaning heavily against the sink. For a few minutes he simply stared at himself in the mirror. He couldn't believe his luck. He had such wonderful people in his life. His anxiety had gone down since arriving at the office but he still was shivering.

"Come on, get a grip," he muttered to himself.

He occupied his attention by taking off his shirt, pants, and underwear and hung them over the curtain railing of the shower to dry. Opening up his bag, he reached in -

And felt nothing.

Blinking warily, Dan let out a frustrated sigh before peering into the bag. The only items were three spare hair ties, a toothbrush, a stick of deodorant, and a fresh pair of socks.

"Arin!"

"Yeah? What's up?"

Dan opened up the bathroom door just far enough that he could poke his head out. "We have a problem."

Arin peered out from around the corner and lifted an eyebrow. "What's up?"

"I forgot a change of clothes."

Arin chuckled. "Dude, you must have sucked at sleepovers when you were little."

"Hey, I was a sleepover king!"

"Hang on, I'll get you something."

Dan called out a thank you as he closed the door and looked back at himself in the mirror. He was naked and cold. But at least he wasn't stuck home, slowly going mad.

No. Instead, he was going to slowly go mad wearing his crush's clothes.

A knock on the bathroom door stirred him from his thoughts. Arin opened the door enough to reach a buff arm through. In his hand was a pile of clothes.

"The shirt will probably be too big but it should be comfy."

"Awesome! Thanks again."

"No problem," Arin replied quickly, moving away from the door and going into the recording room.

Dan pulled on the fuzzy black and pink pj pants and pulled the drawstring tight. The pants dangled a bit on his hips with his hipbones peeking out, and they were a little too short at the ankles, but he didn't think they would fall off or be uncomfortable during filming. Next, he shrugged into the Starbomb t-shirt. It was black with the band's name in yellow and blue lettering. The outfit was a tacky clash and Dan loved it. The clothes even smelled faintly of Arin. He didn't want to take them off.

Stashing his bag in a corner of the bathroom, Dan left the bathroom and headed into the recording room where Arin was setting things up.

"So. What are we playing today?"

"I was thinking we could continue Zel-" Arin's words died on his lips as he looked up and took in Dan's appearance. A huge grin broke out. "Dude! You look ridiculous!"

Dan looked down at himself and joined in with Arin's giggles. "You're just jealous of my sexy bod!"

Arin laughed as he shook his head, hair falling slightly over his eyes. He finished getting everything set up as Dan took his place on the couch. "You look like you were dressed by a preschooler."

"Hey, you were the one who got me this outfit," Dan pointed out with a laugh. He felt a lot more at ease being in the soundproof room where he couldn't hear the rain pelting the building as much.

"I just grabbed the first thing I saw," Arin argued stubbornly. "It was the first thing that I thought was clean."

"You gave me dirty clothes?"

"No! Those are definitely clean!"

Dan raised an eyebrow and Arin shoved him playfully.

"Whatever, let's just get started. We're supposed to do three episodes today."

Dan pulled a blanket up and over him and Arin to share. As they settled in to begin filming, Dan cast Arin a mischievous smile. Arin gave him a questionable look.

Turning to the mic, Dan chimed out, "Guess what, lovelies? I'm wearing Arin's clothes today!"

Arin groaned as he pulled up the start menu of the game. "You're always doing this! You're always setting shit like this up!"

"Shit like what? It's trueeeeee," Dan sang as he wiggled his eyebrows.

"Just to clarify," Arin explained into the mic over Dan's background laughter, "Suzy and I picked Dan up from his apartment and brought him back to the office since he's got no food, no power, and there's a shit storm outside."

"And, because I was dreadfully soaked, Arin let me borrow some clothes," Dan finished cheerfully. "Isn't he the best?"

"You know I am, baby."

Dan snuggled deeper into the couch as Arin started making progress in the game. They fell into their familiar camaraderie. It was comfortable. Safe. Dan felt himself relaxing.

Eventually, Arin mentioned, "We probably will wind up camping the night here since everything's got to be flooded by now."

"I told Arin before that I was known as the sleepover king when I was younger, so now I guess I'll get to show him the ways."

"Well, we can't make popcorn because we're out of it. If anybody has any movie night food recommendations that don't require super fancy stuff, post in the comments!"

"So are we doing a movie night after filming?"

"If you want. We do have a list of movies to pull from."

It was true. Over the years, Dan or Arin would make a movie reference to the other that the other wouldn't understand and they would add it to this mythical 'list' of movies. Granted, an actual hard copy of the list had never been created, but it wouldn't take them long to come up with something to watch.

When they finished the first episode, Arin got up to shift things around and switch games. Dan offered to grab them some snacks. Moving into their 'kitchen' space, Dan made them some simple sandwiches and grabbed a bag of chips for them to share. He found Arin comfortably sitting back on the couch, ready to go. They munched away quickly between episodes, shooting the shit as they ate, before Arin loaded up the next game. With his stomach happily full, Dan adjusted himself to snuggle back into the couch. His feet rested against Arin's thigh under the blanket.

Arin, predictably, got pissed at the game and passed the controller to a chuckling Dan. "Here, you try it!"

Dan asked what the buttons were for the game before giving it a shot.

He passed the level on the first try.

"I...fucking hate you."

Dan burst out in such a fit of laughter that his entire body quaked. "Dude, I tried telling you what to do!"

"Yeah, well, this is bullshit!"

Dan looked over at Arin with a fond smile. Arin broke eye contact after a minute, his face coloring slightly.

"Whatever, man. It's almost time for next time on Game Grumps anyway."

"Join us next time when I beat Arin at his own game!"

"Oh my god! You're such an ass, Daniel."

Dan's giggles could be heard as Arin cut off the capture and immediately fired up the next game.

"This time we're going back to Zelda."

"That's fine with me," Dan replied, stretching out across the couch. Even though filming with Arin filled him with a warm sensation, the lack of sleep was catching up to him.

"Move over."

"No."

Arin sighed dramatically before hoisting Dan's torso up far enough that he could wiggle into place underneath Dan's head and shoulders. "You're such a bear when you're sleepy."

"And you're really comfy."

Arin _hmmph_ -ed but let Dan adjust himself a bit as he took the controller back in hand. They kept their usual banter but towards the end of the episode, Dan started nodding off. It didn't help that one of Arin's strong arms was draped over his shoulder, giving an extra supply of comfortable warmth.

"Next time on Game Grumps we'll hopefully not be submerged under water."

"Hopefully," a sleepy Dan muttered out.

Arin used the remote to turn off the gaming system and looked down at Dan. His eyes were closed and his breathing had evened out. Slowly, Arin maneuvered himself out from under Dan so that he could turn off the capture and pop in one of his favorite movies to play as background noise. He would save the movies from their list for when Dan was more awake and could enjoy the experience. Gingerly, he lifted Dan back up and settled him back down on his lap. As the movie started, he heard Dan murmur something in his sleep. Brushing some of the hair out of his eyes, Arin looked down at Dan.

"What was that?" he asked Dan softly.

"Love you," Dan sighed out.

Arin's hand froze on Dan's forehead. His heart started pounding in his chest. Yet despite Arin's sudden change in breathing, Dan fell asleep. The New Jerseyan was snoring softly and Arin let out a breath he hadn't realized he had been holding. Resuming stroking Dan's hair, Arin found himself watching Dan more than the movie. The man really was just as adorable when sleeping as he was when he was awake and animated.

Arin was screwed.

But, maybe if Dan meant what he said when he woke up, then Arin would _finally_ make a move.

Maybe.

 **Author's Note: Please leave a kind review if you enjoyed this fic. You can find this also under my AO3 account name swankyturnip76.**


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